What happens when a child does not grow up with influence from movies or TV?

I grew up in the Bible Belt and had friends that were not allowed to watch TV or movies. Everything they read or watched had to be approved by the church. If a child does not have stimulus from movies to encourage growth and a sense of self, where does it come from? Are children better off having strict rules as these?

Feb 6 2013:
I personally think movies are an art form that can still be appreciated. It is difficult to gage the amount or types of movies that should be watched, but for the most part movies exist to depict stories and express emotions. Emotions and their understanding can be gained from movies that correlate to successful social behavior or at least a better understanding of it. Languages are also learned from movies and how to grasp or create new ways of speaking; which is another art form that is suffering due to the success or popularity of the text, tweet or e-mail.

Children are better off watching movies. Yes, these movies should be monitored for sexual content mainly, but other liberal ideas or possibilities can be introduced with caution and a point in mind.

Feb 7 2013:
Even if one grows up with minimal media influence, the fact is that one would inevitably interact with other children or people who are being influenced by the media.
Influence is part of life and living; and one would be influenced by associations; but one would still have to make choices and take personal responsibilty for decisions.

Feb 6 2013:
I grew up with some friends in the same situation. What I can tell you is they do not learn how to tune it out. When they would come over all they wanted to do was watch TV. For me, TV was what you did when you DIDN'T have friends over. Even as adults, they have trouble breaking away from the TV set to have a life. They are literally glued to the set.

It is interesting. Now that I think about it. My children never did watch a lot of TV even though we had a lot of channels and a lot of junk to choose from. They had better things to do.

Feb 8 2013:
If the child was homeschooled, and was never around other households where there was tv watching, that is one thing.

But, if the child did not watch tv, and then attended public school and was exposed to others, that is another thing.

Like was stated earlier, we are influenced by others. Sometimes experiencing things vicariously has just as much influence on us as living through it ourselves.

Besides the fact that they did not watch tv.......were they any different than the rest of your friends? Or were they withdrawn and social outcasts? I mean, what differences were evident to you, since you were around these individuals?

Feb 8 2013:
Greg Dahlen might be wrong I was so busy I didn't have time for tv and the kids would laugh when I didn't know who Stephan King was, but I was too busy to worry about Stephan King or the kids laughing. Blooty shameful when I husband or wife doesn't know how to sit at a dinner table but rather sit on the couch to eat and watch tv. Gross !

Feb 6 2013:
The amount of television my daughters watched growing up was trivial- much less than an hour a week. Going to movies was not part of our lifestyle either or in our budget. I would say each of my daughters went to fewer than ten movies while growing up.

This was not about strict rules or motivated by religion. They read, were read to, did puzzles, thought about subjects that interested them and interacted with adults and peers about them, made things, experimented with stuff, took gymnastics and dance...

Remembering here that people grew and formed a sense of self for centuries before TV and movies existed, we can reasonably conclude that it works.

The girls are less savvy about popular culture than their peers were, but there were/are compensating advantages in what they did get from their childhoods.

Having what children read approved by their church is a different question, I think.